So I'm going to be focussing on writing the genre of mystery for this chapter. I'm a huge fan of mystery novels. Honestly, they are just so amazing when done well. I'll be talking about why that is and hopefully help out those of you who write it. I highly suggest that you read as many mystery books as possible, especially any of Kate Morton's. All of them are absolutely incredible. Honestly, I'm in awe whenever I read one. I've read every single one and I love them dearly. Please check her out.

Suspense is needed in every single type of mystery, murder or not. By the end of the book your readers should be dying to know the answer. Seriously. Dying. Every time your reader comes close to an answer, switch the topics, the point of view, time period or whatever you need to do to prolong them from finding out what it is. Or make it a red herring, which basically means a false hint that leads the protagonist in the wrong direction. Do whatever you can to make your story suspenseful. This is hard for me to explain to you because there is no formula or process for suspense. All I can tell you is use foreshadowing, drop little hints, raise more questions than you answer, and keep the answers as far from reach as possible until you can't anymore.

I have a whole chapter dedicated to plot twists. I'd suggest checking it out to refresh your memory! Plot twists are just the best things on the planet . . . and my readers hate me for using them. But don't worry! They always come around and learn to appreciate them! Plot twists aren't just helpful in mystery books, they are necessary. You have to mislead your readers because if you don't the solution to the mystery will come too easily. It won't seem like there was a struggle because the protagonist was walking in the right direction the entire time. Like I said, there's a chapter on this so if you are interested, look for it there. It will take way too long for me to explain everything again and I can guarantee you wouldn't want to have to scroll past all my points to get to the rest of the chapter.

What I mean by this is that your protagonist should have some personal connection to the person in the mystery. Whether this means that they knew the one who was murdered or have an emotional connection to someone else, it really isn't important. The key word was emotion. The emotion will drive the character's motives to solve the mystery.

Kate Morton is really good at doing this. In her story "The Distant Hours" Edie has never really had a real connection to her mother, but when the opportunity arises for her to discover something that happened in her mother's past, during World War 2, she takes it so she can find that connection she desires. Unfortunately, it was something rather tragic and her mother refuses to talk about it so she takes the mystery into her own hands.

In her story "The Forgotten Garden", Cassandra's grandmother dies. Her grandmother, Nell, had been abandoned on a ship when she was just a child and wanted to find out who her parents were and why it happened. After Nell dies, Cassandra takes up the search because she feels obligated to. She was practically raised by her grandmother.

In "The Secret Keeper" the protagonist witnesses her mother murdering a man in her backyard when she was young. In the present her mother is very old and is expected to die and the main character lost her chance to ask her about it. She decides to embark on a search to find out what happened that day and why her mother was so afraid when she saw the man. This is definitely one of my favourites. I highly suggest it. You will never guess the ending!

If you read her other stories, you would notice they all have something in common. The main characters motives are always personal. And usually it has to do with family.

I just talked about motives. For the protagonist, it must be personal. Remember. Motives = Backstory. What happened in the past will drive your motives. But the antagonist needs motives, too. Why did they commit the murder? What drove them to do it? Often, it turns out that who was initially the bad guy didn't really seem like the bad guy in the end because their motives are so believable. You feel their pain with them.

Sometimes in the story there is no clear antagonist at first. Just a million different questions, as is such the case in Kate Morton's stories. But they work. Why? Because gradually more characters are revealed. Some turn out to be sort of antagonistic. Others you learn to love. But one of the best parts of her story is her character's own personal struggle.

Well, duh. The best part of a mystery is not knowing the ending. I thought this was pretty obvious but it's too important not to include. Always be unexpected. Make the ending something that will make sense but your readers will not guess. That shouldn't be too hard to understand. Just make sure that your ending isn't something that someone could predict from the beginning, or even during the climax. Again, Kate Morton excels at this. Please give her books a shot!

You should always have clues in your novel so that your readers won't be confused by the ending or think it unrealistic. The trick is to make them subtle. Have the readers attention on something else while a clue is being given. That way they won't pay it any mind until after it's too late. Make the important clues seem insignificant until your protagonist actually figures out what they had been missing the entire time. Usually the answer to a mystery passes right under our noses. That doesn't mean it isn't there; it's just subtle. Don't forget that you can always go back and include the hints after you've finished writing the first draft. It's actually easier.

This is really, really important for mysteries. Usually the planning process is very complex. Know the solution to the mystery before you start writing. This is one case where you definitely can't wing it. The ending of a mystery gives the rest of the story direction, some sort of point that you have to reach. Plus, the more you plan and research the more realistic it will be. Research how police investigations work, historical events (if applicable) and even the small details you might not think are important but really are.

The following is for you to consider, but isn't necessary. I would highly suggest that you include more than one perspective and time frame. It sounds cluttered right now, but trust me, it isn't. If your character is trying to unravel things that happened in the past, such as in Morton's stories, please think about this!

It will greater develop your characters and help you readers keep up with the story. It will also create dramatic irony in some cases, which is where the reader knows something that the protagonist does not.

I'll give you an example to help you understand. In "The Distant Hours" it has multiple perspectives. The main one is Edie, but it also has perspectives of people in the past, like her mother back when she was a teen. Her mother was billeted to this castle that was owned by people called the Blythe sisters. Something happened there that still bothered her mother, even when she was old. Some of the story was told from the perspective of the Blythe sisters as well. Except, it doesn't spoil anything. Usually there is an event, which in this case is a letter Edie's mother receives from the sisters that makes her cry, and the things that happen in the past are just the leading up to the event so you don't really understand anything until the end. But it helps explain how it happened. It also makes the readers wonder. Everything seems perfectly fine. How did it change?

In "The Forgotten Garden" the event is Nell being abandoned on a ship by a woman she doesn't know. In the past there are chapters from the perspective of women named Eliza, Rose, and others. Eventually, it is revealed how Nell ended up on that ship and why. The explanation is a whole lot more complex than I could ever have guessed by just thinking about it. This was also one of my favourite stories. Hopefully this example was a bit clearer than the last.

Remember that having multiple perspectives and time frames won't work for every situation. Use your judgement. Usually it is best when the mystery has remained a mystery for a very long time. If it is a recent murder, going into the past might be pointless unless the bad blood between the murderer and the victim is very old. Consider this. If you have any questions, please ask! This part was difficult for me to explain.

Like in every story, your narrator must be interesting. That means they should be three-dimensional and have unique and distinguishable qualities. We want them to solve the mystery. In order to want this, we need to like them first. A story is only as interesting as it's narrator, I like to say. How good are they at telling a story?

I like to say that in mysteries you should always create more questions than you answer. Reveal one thing that creates an entirely new angle you hadn't considered just yet. The best mysteries are the ones that leave your readers confused, but in a pleasant way. How is that pleasant, you are probably wondering. It's pleasant because your readers will be intrigued enough to keep reading and when they do eventually discover the solution, it will be that much more satisfying.

If your story involves suspects or witnesses or even people that your character just wants to talk to, they should all be lying about something and if they aren't lying they should have completely misunderstood the situation and mislead the protagonist. You may have four murder suspects and all of them are lying so your reader won't know which one did it. The thing is, only one of them will be lying because they don't want to be caught as the murderer. The others are lying because they don't want your character to discover something else, like that they were selling drugs the night the victim was murdered, or that they are sleeping with someone's husband, etc.

As for the character misunderstanding a situation, that applies to witnesses. The witness may have thought they saw something the night of the crime but really it turned out to be something else entirely. Always mislead. It makes for a great story.

And never forget that everyone is a liar.

Like I said, always mislead your reader. Have the protagonist embark on a path. Have them convinced they know something and throw it back in their face so it turns out everything they thought they knew was wrong. Give them evidence to follow that leads them to dead ends or have them have to choose between two ways to find the solution but make them choose the wrong one. There are so many ways you can throw the protagonist and readers off the scent. Just make sure that until the end, your protagonist isn't even close to what they want to discover or that they are missing one important piece in the puzzle.

This goes back to the subtle hints thing. Near the end, have your protagonist have almost all of the pieces in the puzzle except for one or two very important ones. Make sure that the pieces they are missing are the ones that will link the rest together. Also, let your readers come to their own conclusions of how things went based on the pieces of information they were supplied with. Then have the last piece of the puzzle turn it all around. Like I said, your readers should never expect the ending. It defeats the purpose. Nothing should ever be as it seems.

There it is. That's how you write a mystery. The reason I found this chapter so difficult to write is because mysteries are all so different and some rules do not apply. Please, if you have questions please ask! It will actually make me feel better about this chapter. I'd love to clarify things for you and if you have questions specific to your story all is the better. Thanks for reading! I hope this was straight-forward enough. Feedback is always welcome.